KARACHI, April 19: The government launched on Monday a quick two week household consumption expenditure survey from Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi to investigate quality of life of people living in about 5,600 sample dwellings of 35 districts of the country.
About 300 staff members, including enumerators, supervisors and senior incharges, were given a quick three-day training before deploying them in the survey. The survey will be over by first week of May. Results of the survey will be thoroughly processed and the final findings will find a prominent place in the budget speech to be delivered by the finance minister in June.
A comparison of the results of current survey with the findings of last Integrated Household Income Expenditure survey done three years ago will give the change that has come in the quality of life of the people and impact of the economic policies of the present government.
The last survey on Integrated Household Income and Expenditure is reported to have shown unusually high income in some border areas of Balochistan which many in the government believed to be wrong.
"It is a perfect representative sample that we have designed for our survey," the Director General of Federal Bureau of Statistics Dr Agha Ghazanfar informed Dawn by telephone from Islamabad while responding to a question if a sample design based on 5,600 households can represent quality of life of 150 million of the country.
He said that experts of British government are associated in the survey and they would also monitor the processing of the results and findings. Within this week a meeting of a number of foreign donor agencies would also be convened to invite them for monitoring the survey.
Agha Ghazanfar dispelled the impression that survey was merely a hush hush affair designed to convince the people of the headway made by the government in putting a brake on poverty growth. "It is an 11-page questionnaire that seeks comprehensive information on the quality of life in about 5,600 sample households."
Household sampling has been done with adequate representation of low income, middle income and high income group and the FBS staff is confident of getting accurate results.
The 11-page questionnaire seeks information on the number of persons who "live and eat" in the household, relation of each of the resident with the head of the family and also educational qualification, earnings and nature of jobs of each of the person living in a house.
Information has been sought about the type of dwelling, occupancy status of the respondent, number of rooms, amenities, source of drinking water, type of toilet, drainage and sewerage, and mode of garbage collection and disposal.
The household members will have to provide answers what they consumed in last 14 days (milk, butter, cheese, curd, ice cream, any milk-based dish, beef, mutton, chicken, eggs, fish, prawns, shrimps, seasonal fruits, dry fruits, vegetables, pulses, spices, sugar, syrups and beverages, wheat, wheat flour, desi ghee, vegetable ghee, tea and coffee, confectioneries, cookies and bakery products, tobacco, miscellaneous food items like jams, pickles, chuttnies.
Information is being sought on fuel consumption, personal care articles, personal care services, other household expenses, recreation and entertainment.
The survey will also cover income of the head of the family and all members of the household and the sources of income, the details of cutlery, clothing, footwear and other items. Expenditure on education, healthcare, stationary, books, periodical repairs and maintenance of house and cars and two wheelers, tractors.
But the biggest question is how to get the correct answers of all these questions. In remote rural areas and even in cities there are households where it is difficult to get details on wife or wives and children particularly on girls. Rich people conceal their income and their consumption pattern when it comes to passing on this information to some government agency.
